Hey guys. I didn't ask for a zoning lesson or a smart ass remark about how common tall buildings are in New York City. I asked whether there are plans to build the picture of the building that whynot posted on that lot.

The building may be as small as 5 stories. It is an 1875sf lot with max FAR of 4.0. The zoning floor area is 7500sf. A corner lot in R7A zone allows 80% lot coverage. This yields a floorplate of 1500sf. 7500 / 1500 = 5 stories. However, the maximum building height is 80', so a developer may choose have smaller floorplates and more floors. Since the lot is relatively small to begin with, I think larger floorplates make more sense in terms of usable area.

Interesting. I didn't think these plans were final. There's certainly no movement now, and that dirt removal was probably for the back of 747 (there wasn't any dirt on 745, and I don't think any digging was done -- I could be wrong).

For one thing, if I were HSBC, I wouldn't sign a 20-year lease on a non-existent building. And the rest of the structure, which I presume would be residential and at a minimum 12 units, would easily justify the development effort, at which point more commercial tenants could be attracted to an actually existing space.

They're earning equity, which as you of course known is unrealized income. I agree there's little risk for sudden depreciation in this market. I assume the owner does not need the money and can let the chips continue to ride.

Another factor is the cost of construction in this market -- it's easily double what it was in 2009, and it's bound to go down again once demand starts to slow. The trick is making the right bet in terms of timing the cost against the return.

It's entirely possible the plans aren't at any risk of being realized soon, and that the whole project is just bait for an exorbitant buyout by a professional developer.

I was walking past the site (747) a few days ago, when work was being done, and the workers mentioned that they were fixing up the existing building, and once it was completed, they would begin construction on the empty lot (745).

Both properties are/were handled by CPEX, so this could explain why the same contractor is being used, and why we haven't seen progress here yet.

I infer that their attempts to attract Retail Store were not successful, and decided to go residential as a result.

I believe any new buildings over 4 stories require an elevator, which (given the size of this lot and absence of interest from a credible Retail Store) likely influenced their decision to build only 4 stories.